I have played 88.3k hands this year and I'm down almost $700. wtf... It's been so weird how I keep losing all in pots where I have a ton of equity. But on the other hand, I seem to have run way above average during this run in terms of flopping sets+. So I have no idea what to think right now. I am still working on my game, but I perceive my edge in these games to be pretty large as is, yet I just can't seem to win consistently at all.

Seems like I must have just been a lucky fish on a sick heater last year, and now my results are just coming down to earth.

In other news, I owned this whiny kid at HU yesterday and he refuses to play me anymore because he honestly thinks I'm lucky. I find this pretty amusing.

Graphs:

YTD results 6max



YTD results hu




Also, I'm up $400 in about 2k hands of PLO, in which I shortstacked .5/1 and ran hot.

Finally run hot, and it was great timing because this guy on AP somehow agreed to play me HU 2 tables and deep stacked. I recorded the session, because I'm recording all my sessions at the moment, but I doubt I'll need to review this one for any reason other than hilarity. Hopefully I will be back at 1/2nl regularly very soon. I'm getting kind of sick of playing .5/1, and it's just not possible to make that much money playing as few hours as I want to.

Here's a graph of the session and a few hand histories:




Absolute Poker, $0.50/1 Hold'em Cash Games, 2 Players
Hand Converter by Pokerhand.org

Board:
Button: $215.70
BB: $304.90

Dealt to BB 9 9

Pre-flop:
Button raises to $3, BB raises to $10, Button calls $7

Flop: ($21.50) J 5 T (2 Players)
BB checks, Button checks

Turn: ($21.50) 2 (2 Players)
BB checks, Button bets $15, BB calls $15

River: ($51.50) 2 (2 Players)
BB checks, Button bets $50, BB calls $50

Results:
Button Showed 6 Q
BB Showed 9 9
BB wins $149.50


Absolute Poker, $0.50/1 Hold'em Cash Games, 2 Players
Hand Converter by Pokerhand.org

Board:
BB: $206.20
Button: $365.80

Dealt to Button Q Q

Pre-flop:
Button raises to $3, BB raises to $9, Button raises to $26, BB calls $17

Flop: ($53.50) 2 7 9 (2 Players)
BB checks, Button bets $36, BB calls $36

Turn: ($125.50) 5 (2 Players)
BB checks, Button all-in $303.80, BB all-in $144.20, Button returns $159.60

River: ($536.40) 6 (2 Players)

Results:
BB Showed T 9
Button Showed Q Q
Button wins $411.90


Villain quit me pretty much right after this hand, but I ended up taking around $550 or so off him, so not a bad session. Hopefully I can stick to my stop loss from here on, as that is my number one goal for the moment. I think I play very good poker when I'm on my game, but I also feel like I delude myself into thinking that I play well enough when I'm tilted. I don't, especially when I'm on an extended break-even stretch (like I am right now).

PS: Am I the only one enthralled by the high stakes action going on at FTP lately? I have been checking NVG almost every day for updates. Pretty sick the amount of money that those guys toss around.

Jesus... just had the craziest .5/1 session ever. This guy just owned my soul by playing super passive and hitting everything against me. So tilted right now thinking about this. I also ignored my stop loss and kept playing him because he was so terrible, so I guess I need to learn this lesson yet again.. The thing is, if I had grinded it back and ended up losing less or turning it into a winner, I would be glad I didn't quit. It's so hard to not be results oriented.

Here's my year so far. I need to make some money or find a new career imo..

So I had a great day at the low stakes, topping out at nearly +1k. I played all hu, and most of my profit came from one guy who appears to be a winning player from Tableratings. I feel like I should just stop using Tableratings altogether, because it gives me a false impression of what the opponent is like. I should probably just base my decisions on how the opponent acts during the match. I'm already willing to sit with anyone hu (at least for 50 hands or however long it takes me to figure out how the guy plays), so it's not like I'm missing out on action by using Tableratings. It's just that it sort of colors my decision making to some degree while the match is going on. And I tilt easier if the guy is a loser on TR and he's beating me.

So anyway, the guy I profited from most today basically turned from a somewhat decent, thinking (trying to be) player into a slot machine at some point in our match, making it pretty easy to keep it flowing my way. I believe the same thing happens to me sometimes when I'm playing a guy heads up and losing. This is why it's super important to have a stop loss when playing hu. Once the match isn't going your way, it's okay to just stop (this is something I learned a long time ago when I joined CardRunners and would watch Green Plastic's vids.. I think it's still a really important lesson, and it's something that I don't think about enough anymore).

Here's a couple hands from the match:


Absolute Poker, $0.50/1 Hold'em Cash Games, 2 Players
Hand Converter by Pokerhand.org

Board:
BB: $543.10
Button: $218.80

Dealt to BB K Q

Pre-flop:
Button raises to $3, BB calls $2

Flop: ($6.50) T 7 J (2 Players)
BB bets $5, Button raises to $21, BB raises to $52, Button raises to $215.80 and is all-in, BB calls $163.80

Turn: ($438.10) K (2 Players)

River: ($438.10) T (2 Players)

Results:
BB Showed K Q
Button Showed 2 9
BB wins $437.10




Absolute Poker, $0.50/1 Hold'em Cash Games, 2 Players
Hand Converter by Pokerhand.org

Board:
BB: $200
Button: $200

Dealt to Button 6 2

Pre-flop:
Button raises to $2, BB raises to $7, Button calls $5

Flop: ($15.50) 6 4 6 (2 Players)
BB bets $10, Button raises to $32, BB raises to $80, Button raises to $193 and is all-in, BB all-in $113

Turn: ($400.50) J (2 Players)

River: ($400.50) Q (2 Players)

Results:
BB Showed A A
Button Showed 6 2
Button wins $399.50

I have been having a hard time winning lately. This blog is going to help me win again. Most of my problems stem from my poor self-discipline. I can't fold a hand when I know I'm beat. Or I can't quit a session when I know I should. Or I can't make myself study when I just feel like taking a break and watching TV.

To fix these issues, I'm going to attempt to hold myself to a quasi-schedule. Part of why I like poker is that I can make my own schedule and do what I want with my time. But I have not been maximizing my efficiency to yield the most free time and enjoyment out of life. I have been playing long sessions while LOSING. This makes no sense. I should play long sessions while WINNING.

So anyway, I'm going to start playing sessions of no longer than 90 minutes. If I have a winning session, it can go on longer than 90 minutes if I am feeling focused, but if I have a losing session, I absolutely MUST QUIT after 90 minutes (quitting early is okay too).

There should be at least two 90 minute sessions per day.

Also, my friend suggested to me that we meet up on Skype and review some hands together on a daily basis. I think that'd be a really good idea, so I hope we can get together on that and actually get it done. If not that, I'm going to spend 90 minutes on my own reviewing hands or studying my notes and/or watching a video. I used to study every day and work on improving my game, but the past few months I have been slacking on that, and it's time to get back to it.

Here's my biggest losing hand for today (standard 60/40, but he played it real bad):


Absolute Poker, $0.50/1 Hold'em Cash Games, 6 Players
Hand Converter by Pokerhand.org

Board:
Button: $197.50
SB: $110.20
BB: $266.05
UTG: $68.73
UTG+1: $96.62
CO: $228.90

Dealt to SB A A

Pre-flop:
(3 folds), Button raises to $3.50, SB raises to $12.50, (1 folds), Button calls $9

Flop: ($26.50) 4 5 2 (2 Players)
SB checks, Button bets $15, SB raises to $97.70 and is all-in, Button calls $82.70

Turn: ($221.90) A (2 Players)

River: ($221.90) J (2 Players)

Results:
Button Showed 9 8
SB Showed A A
Button wins $217.90

Was super tilted yesterday after this hand occurred, where this dude who is basically unknown to me shows up with a sick thin value c/r on the river, something that I have never ever seen before from anyone at .5/1 or 1/2. I quit the session very soon after, so I have no idea if this guy is insane or just really good. I'm guessing insane though.

Right after the hand, I basically thought the guy must be some kind of genius mindreader or something, but after thinking over the hand more, I just think he's a moron. If he somehow has a read on me that I don't like to fold, or that I attempt to read hands, that's one thing, because he could expect me to call this c/r with almost any pair (looks like he either slowplayed A4 or got there on the river with 66 --- or much more likely, missed his FD or floated with random cards and decided to bluff since I checked back the turn). Obviously I didn't know what the guy was capable of, so my tendency is to call a lot when it seems unlikely they have a hand.

Maybe that's bad, who knows.


Absolute Poker, $0.50/1 Hold'em Cash Games, 5 Players
Hand Converter by Pokerhand.org

Board:
SB: $65.60
BB: $114.05
UTG: $59.55
CO: $100
Button: $23

Dealt to CO 9 A

Pre-flop:
(1 folds), CO raises to $3, (2 folds), BB calls $2

Flop: ($6.50) 4 A 4 (2 Players)
BB checks, CO bets $4, BB calls $4

Turn: ($14.50) 6 (2 Players)
BB checks, CO checks

River: ($14.50) 2 (2 Players)
BB checks, CO bets $11, BB raises to $107.05 and is all-in, CO all-in $82, BB returns $14.05

Results:
BB Showed J A
CO Mucks 9 A
BB wins $197

Ok, so I just finished up a session of 3 tabling which I hardly ever do, but I'm going to start doing more. My reasoning behind playing a lot of tables in the past has been that I am not that great at poker anyway, so I might as well play as many tables as possible and it won't hurt me that much that I can't focus on each table, since I don't know what to focus on anyway. Also that the other players are so bad that it won't matter that much.

Well, now I think I'm wrong, because I've been doing this for a while and it's not working like I want it to. And I know it's not because I suck, because I spend a decent amount of time thinking about everything, and it's not ****ing rocket science. Plus I have a problem with tilt, which gets magnified the more tables I am at while tilting. If I'm on less tables, my tilt should affect many fewer hands, and since I am on fewer tables, I will be in less of a trance-like state (and thus it should be easier to quit).

This advice is out there, and I have read it many times. But sometimes (often) I have to have an actual meaningful experience in order to learn something. I am sure this is the same way for others.

My meaningful experience today was the following:

Absolute Poker, $0.50/1 Hold'em Cash Games, 5 Players
Hand Converter by Pokerhand.org

Board:
UTG: $243.40
CO: $196
Button: $232.19
SB: $58.10
BB: $43.50

Dealt to Button K Q

Pre-flop:
UTG raises to $3.50, CO calls $3.50, Button raises to $14.50, (3 folds), CO calls $11

Flop: ($34) K J 3 (2 Players)
CO checks, Button checks

Turn: ($34) 3 (2 Players)
CO bets $21, Button calls $21

River: ($76) 6 (2 Players)
CO bets $60, Button calls $60

Results:
CO Showed 4 4
Button Showed K Q
Button wins $192.50


If I had been playing even as many as 6 tables, I would have c-bet this flop, and CO would have folded. But instead, I used a line that I pretty much never take, and maximized my EV in this specific situation. The CO is a fairly aggressive TAG regular (~25/22/3), and when he flats twice preflop like this, he pretty much has to have a small pair or other speculative hand (but way more likely a small pair).

So why should I c-bet the flop? It's a WA/WB situation (unless he can have a decent number of suited connectors or broadway cards, but I think he'd fold most of these to my squeeze), and we're deep, so I should check it back and try to induce bluffs or get him to call on later streets.

The 3 of spades on the turn is basically the nuts, because now he has to have quads or JJ to beat me, both of which are incredibly unlikely. The river 6 seals the deal, and I considered raising for value, because I feel like my hand is still the nuts given his range. But then I thought that might be too fancy, and just called. Pretty sure a raise is just letting him freeroll, since he can't really ever call without quads or 6's full.


So I am still excited to be playing poker for a living, and maybe I will make money doing it at some point in the near future.

(Not a good thing)

So I was up for like 24 hours straight and decided that it was a good time to move down to .25/.50 and 10-table. 4k hands later, and I'm down like 22 buyins ($1100) at happy meal stakes. Time to move back up to where they respek my raises, obv. I'm afraid now I'm going to be a lifetime loser at that limit for the rest of my life, as I don't plan to grind .25/.50 ever ever ever.

Anyway, I play some .5/1 today and get owned as usual, and after today I'm around break-even for the year in actual winnings (+$5k adjusted for all-in equity)... So my narrow green line looks OK, but my bold green line unfortunately looks kind of like a mountain.

Too results oriented, huh?

I live with my girlfriend in New Haven, CT. Wish I lived elsewhere as the weather is cold, and the people are rude. Also, my car got stolen a couple weeks ago. But I'm stuck here since my gf is attending Yale for her PhD. If anybody here goes to Yale or lives in CT, hit me up for some home games or trips to Foxwoods or something.

I'm a regular small stakes grinder on AP at the moment, although I'm waiting for the day that FTP hooks me up with rakeback so I can switch sites. I have been struggling for the past 6 months or so, and I've been playing lower stakes than I want to be. Last year I was playing 2/4-5/10 pretty regularly, and now I'm back down to .5/1 and 1/2.

I made like 50k playing small-mid stakes NL holdem last year, which I was basically lucky to have done considering how bad I played (and continue to play) this game. Even so, I am proud of what I have accomplished so far, and I'm pretty optimistic about the future, even though the games seem to be getting tougher. I'm not a total dip****, so I feel like if anyone should be able to be successful at this game, I should be. I am 24 and have finished college, and I feel like I'm fairly good at most things I try out.

My primary goal in poker for the moment is to compete at the mid stakes online, and keep moving up. To accomplish this, I sometimes (rarely) post hands on a forum, watch several videos per month, and have recently been swapping sweat sessions with a friend. I have also purchased the Slowhabit/CTS book, and I have studied it pretty closely, although a lot of it was not very new to me. I might start posting some hands in the Leggo forums, and see how that goes. I haven't really browsed them very much yet, so I'm not sure what kind of advice goes around in there.

If anybody on Leggo would like to swap sweat sessions, let me know.

Gonna post here some bad beats and occasional other nonsense. Can't keep whining to my friends etc.. So I'm starting a blog. Enjoy.

1.


Board:
DK_DRUMS (BB): $248.90
IM THE PUSHER (UTG): $575.65
MALEMAN246 (UTG+1): $559.25
MATTBOULDIN (CO): $400.65
SHAFTY12 (Button): $405.90
BINKO (SB): $231.65

Dealt to DK_DRUMS T J

Pre-flop:
IM THE PUSHER raises to $7, (4 folds), DK_DRUMS calls $5

Flop: ($15) 9 8 6 (2 Players)
DK_DRUMS checks, IM THE PUSHER bets $10, DK_DRUMS raises to $34, IM THE PUSHER raises to $568.65 and is all-in, (1 folds), IM THE PUSHER returns $534.65

Results:
IM THE PUSHER wins $79.50



2.


Board:
DK_DRUMS (Button): $255.90
IM THE PUSHER (SB): $576.65
MALEMAN246 (BB): $559.45
MATTBOULDIN (UTG): $400
SHAFTY12 (UTG+1): $396.80
BINKO (CO): $235.65

Dealt to DK_DRUMS Q A

Pre-flop:
MATTBOULDIN raises to $7, (2 folds), DK_DRUMS calls $7, (2 folds)

Flop: ($17) T T J (2 Players)
MATTBOULDIN checks, DK_DRUMS checks

Turn: ($17) 8 (2 Players)
MATTBOULDIN checks, DK_DRUMS checks

River: ($17) 2 (2 Players)
MATTBOULDIN checks, DK_DRUMS checks

Results:
MATTBOULDIN Showed 5 5
DK_DRUMS Mucks Q A
MATTBOULDIN wins $15.65



3.


Board:
DK_DRUMS (CO): $458.05
IM THE PUSHER (Button): $588.35
MALEMAN246 (SB): $476.15
MATTBOULDIN (BB): $434.55
SHAFTY12 (UTG): $427.35
BINKO (UTG+1): $206.80

Dealt to DK_DRUMS 5 Q

Pre-flop:
(2 folds), DK_DRUMS raises to $6, IM THE PUSHER raises to $21, (2 folds), DK_DRUMS raises to $56, IM THE PUSHER calls $35

Flop: ($115) K 2 4 (2 Players)
DK_DRUMS bets $68, IM THE PUSHER calls $68

Turn: ($251) 5 (2 Players)
DK_DRUMS checks, IM THE PUSHER checks

River: ($251) 5 (2 Players)
DK_DRUMS checks, IM THE PUSHER bets $128, DK_DRUMS raises to $334.05 and is all-in, IM THE PUSHER calls $206.05

Results:
DK_DRUMS Showed 5 Q
IM THE PUSHER Mucks K A
DK_DRUMS wins $915.60



4.


Board:
DK_DRUMS (SB): $319.05
AMPHIPTERE (BB): $197.40
YELLOWDAWG (UTG): $445.15
PURNDOG (UTG+1): $67
THETRUEST (CO): $741.45
JK_BULLFROG (Button): $197.20

Dealt to DK_DRUMS A A

Pre-flop:
YELLOWDAWG raises to $7, (2 folds), JK_BULLFROG raises to $24, DK_DRUMS calls $23, (1 folds), YELLOWDAWG raises to $98, (1 folds), DK_DRUMS raises to $319.05 and is all-in, YELLOWDAWG calls $221.05

Flop: ($665.10) 5 T 8 (2 Players)

Turn: ($665.10) K (2 Players)

River: ($665.10) K (2 Players)

Results:
DK_DRUMS Showed A A
YELLOWDAWG Showed A K
YELLOWDAWG wins $660.60





Actually, only the last one is a bad beat. The first 2 are hands that I think I may have misplayed, and the third one is kind of a brag (even though I sucked out on the guy, I think I played the hand really really well).

I have been playing better than I ever have before and understanding a lot of really important and yet basic concepts that I didn't understand before when I was winning. So now I should be able to win even more, yet it hasn't been happening for me lately. I have been just running terrible (or misapplying concepts that I now believe I understand...). Since it seems I am running many many buyins below expectation according to HEM, I feel like it's more likely that I'm running bad.

Then again, I have a big problem with tilt. Previously, I have played 8 tables of whatever limit I am at for pretty long sessions (2-3 hours) very regularly, without using much table selection. This worked for me even though I didn't really know what I was doing, I believe because people are just really bad. Maybe now they play a little better (than they did about 8-12 months ago). So I need to work on forcing my self to game select a little bit better (ONLY a little bit though.. I feel like game selecting is overrated at lower stakes [currently playing .5/1 and 1/2], and I should be able to have a solid winrate at ANY table at these limits, especially since I want to be back at the 2/4 and higher games soon). More importantly though, I also need to force myself to quit when I am tilted.

I got really pissed when I lost that AA hand in my post, so I just shut it down and stopped playing. I am really proud of myself for doing that, and I hope that I can continue to do this when I am angry over losing.

Thanks for reading, although I hope you didn't.